ClutchPoints
The Week 1 slate in the NFL delivered all day on Sunday after a pair of great prime time games to open the season, but nothing stacked up to the Buffalo Bills’ epic comeback over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday Night Football. Despite trailing by 15 points with less than five minutes to go, Josh Allen led Buffalo all the way back to an unthinkable 41-40 win.
Of course, it is always good to get a win over a fellow contender in your conference to start the season. That could come into play in the standings late in the season if the Bills and Ravens are atop their respective divisions, as they are expected to be. The Ravens couldn’t get over the hump in Buffalo in the playoffs last season, and the Bills’ home-field advantage played a big part in that.
However, the result was fueled by a lot of very Ravens-y mistakes that have become a part of the identity of Baltimore in recent years with Lamar Jackson and John Harbaugh leading the way. Rookie kicker Tyler Loop missed an extra point. Baltimore inexplicably allowed Buffalo to get in field goal range at the end of the first half. Derrick Henry had a costly fumble that allowed Buffalo to get back in the game, and then John Harbaugh handled Baltimore’s final possession in questionable fashion.
Those mistakes, and the Bills’ clutch heroics, don’t cover up what Sunday night was for 55 minutes. Baltimore dominated the Bills for most of the evening, and that leaves a few causes for concern in Orchard Park.
The safety room in Buffalo has been one of its top position groups during the McDermott era, but that is no longer the case with both Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde out the door. The Bills are now relying on Cole Bishop and Taylor Rapp to fill those spots, and the limitations of both were on display on Sunday night.
Rapp was the Bills’ lowest-graded player on defense in Week 1 according to PFF, finishing with a dreadful 29.1 overall grade while struggling in both pass coverage and against the run. He struggled to take good angles in the open field against Henry and also finished with one missed tackle and four catches allowed for 72 yards.
Bishop is a little bit more limited against the run despite faring better overall than Rapp did in this game, but he is still exploitable in coverage at times against great quarterbacks and offensive coordinators, and that was on full display against the Ravens on Sunday night.
In order to get back to the AFC Championship Game and go even farther this season, the Bills are going to have to beat some of the best offenses in the NFL. Those units will be targeting Bishop and Rapp in the middle of the field whenever they get the chance, so that is an issue that McDermott and his staff will...
